Final Build (vs Hyper Carry w/ Heals)

Relics

Sobek's Skill Order

Charge Prey

1X

315161819

Tail Whip

2A

28111214

Sickening Strike

3B

146710

Lurking In The Waters

4Y

59131720

Intro

Sobek, God of the Nile

Hey! My name is Bankai Sensei and this is my first guide. I've been playing Smite on console since the beginning of Season 3. I'm Level 147 and have reached Diamond in both Ranked Joust and Ranked Conquest. I mainly play Support in Conquest, although I like to Jungle and Mid, too. I have 25 gods at Mastery X (e.g., Sobek, Athena, Erlang Shen, Nike, Chiron, AMC, Nox, Zhong Kui, Awilix, Serqet). I play a lot of Sobek across all game modes and have 3000+ worshipers with the le crocodile.

The Croc - The Myth - The Legend

Intro to Guardian

Guardians are the tanks of smite. The main roles of the Guardian are (1) to tank/mitigate incoming damage, (2) to peel for the teammates, and (3) to interrupt enemy gods. Despite the game mode, Guardians are the support in any fight.

(1) To tank/mitigate damage --
When the enemy team is attacking, the Guardian wants to be hit by as many of the enemy gods' abilities as possible. This will spare the squishies on your team (mage, hunter, assassin) and allow them to fight uninhibited.

(2) To peel for the teammates --
When the enemy team is attacking, the Guardian wants to protect teammates by CC'ing the enemy gods. This allows your teammates to escape, reset, and continue fighting.

(3) To interrupt enemy gods --
When an enemy god is using or preparing an ability, the Guardian will use CC to stop, delay, or cancel the incoming enemy ability. This will allow your teammates to go on the offensive as the enemy's kit is on cooldown.

**Make sure to pay extra attention to your squishies (Mage, Hunter, Assassin). They need more help than a Warrior or another Guardian.

Intro to Sobek as Guardian

Each Guardian has their own unique way of fulfilling their role.

To tank/mitigate damage -- Sobek naturally has a higher health total and more protections than other classes. To capitalize on this, you want defensive items that grant additional health and protections to increase longevity in team fights. Sustain is key for Guardians. Damage WILL happen. Your job is to handle that damage and carry on in spite. Luckily, Sobek's third ability, Sickening Strike, heals him! And Sobek's passive, Blessing of the Nile, grants additional protections for successful basic attacks and abilities.

To peel for teammates -- Sobek has fantastic peel! His first ability, Charge Prey is perfect for literally throwing an enemy away from a teammate. Sobek's second ability, Tail Whip, is also a great tool for pushing an enemy away from a teammate. Lurking In The Waters can be used to slow down enemies and discourage enemy pursuit. Squishies love a Guardian that can hit their peel <3

To interrupt enemy gods --
As mentioned above, Sobek can use Charge Prey and Tail Whip to peel for a teammate. These abilities can also be used to interrupt enemy abilities. If an enemy is using an ability that is active or channeling, Sobek can pluck them out of it with Charge Prey. Likewise, Sobek can use Tail Whip to interrupt an active or channeled enemy ability. Additionally, Sickening Strike has an anti-heal property and can be used to minimize enemy healing.

Abilities

skills

1 - Charge Prey

Charge Prey is a line attack in which Sobek dashes forward, stops at the first enemy hit, and throws the enemy up in the air and directly behind Sobek (approximately from where Sobek started the dash). This ability does damage upon impact and Sobek is immune to Knockups during the dash. Use Charge Prey to throw a target enemy backwards to your teammates to devour, to throw an enemy into a tower or phoenix, to peel an enemy off of a teammate, and to get away from fights when necessary. This is typically how Sobek initiates a fight.

2 - Tail Whip

Tail Whip is a 360* attack in which Sobek spins around, knocking up and pushing away all enemies within range. This is incredibly useful for both offense and defense. Use Tail Whip to peel for teammates, to shake off enemies, to prevent enemies from retreating, and to interrupt enemy abilites. This is usually the follow-up to Charge Prey.

3 - Sickening Strike

Sickening Strike is a swipe attack with a fan-like hitbox in front of Sobek that damages enemies, reduces their healing, and heals Sobek. Hitting three enemies will provide the most healing from a single swing, as opposed to fewer than three enemies hit for less healing. It is incredibly useful for out-sustaining your opponents, especially against enemies with heals and Lifesteal Items. Use Sickening Strike right before an enemy heals, to confirm a kill, and to heal.

4 - Lurking In the Waters

Lurking In The Waters is an AoE ability where Sobek goes beneath the ground, increasing his protections and regenerating mana. During this time, Sobek is CC immune and enemies in his AoE are slowed. After 4 seconds, Sobek emerges and damages all enemies in the AoE.

Items

Starter

Guardian's Blessing is a cornerstone item for most Guardians. It provides health, protections, hp & mana for minion assists, mana regen, and additional gold per minion assist. With this item, you want to get the ASSIST for the minions instead of the kill. This item stacks upon minion assists and evolves to give even more gold per minion assist.

Item 1

Gauntlet of Thebes is one of my favorite items to use on Guardians. It provides much needed health, protections for each stack, and upon evolution it provides additional protections for you and nearby teammates. I build this item first because of the health, HP5, and eventual aura. Keep in mind, if you build this first you will be slow as you do not have boots yet.

Item 2

Shoes of Focus provides highly valuable mana for your early game as well as cooldown, which will allow you to engage more often as well as increase the likelihood that your peel is ready when it needs to be.

Item 3

Emperor's Armor is a preferred item of mine. It decreases the speed at which enemy towers/phoenixes fire, and increases the speed at which allied towers/phoenixes fire. This will allow Sobek to tower dive enemies, and in turn allow your teammates to either push tower or finish off an enemy cowering under tower. Most importantly though, it provides health and physical protections, which will be key in mitigating damage against a physical ADC.

ALTERNATIVE Genji's Guard is a good alternative if you are vs a Hyper Carry (i.e., magic based Carry). It provides magical protections, cooldown, MP5, and health. Definitely a good item for sustain on Sobek. The passive can further decrease cooldowns.

ALTERNATIVE Pestilence is necessary when the opposing team has healers. It provides good magical protections, health, and reduces healing of nearby enemies. Build as Item 3 vs a Hyper Carry with a healer on their team.

Item 4

Bulwark of Hope is a commonly used item as it provides health, magical protections, and a shield (based on your health total) upon entering dangerously low health. At this point in the game, players are rotating more and team fights are starting to happen. Adding magical protections is essential since you will more than likely be encountering an enemy Mage now. Furthermore, the shield will help greatly when using Lurking In The Waters as it allots you that little bit of extra time you need for full damage.

ALTERNATIVE Jade Emperor's Crown provides physical protection, health, and some magical power. It also decreases the physical power of nearby enemies. Build this as Item 4 if you are vs a Hyper Carry (and built magical protections for Item 3).

ALTERNATIVE Pestilence is necessary when the opposing team has healers. It provides good magical protections, health, and reduces healing of nearby enemies. Build as Item 4 vs a physical Carry with a healer on their team.

Item 5

Mantle of Discord is a sound defensive item that provides solid protections and more cooldown. Around this time, you may find yourself waiting for your abilities to cooldown. This item will improve your cooldown times and grant a stun upon entering dangerously low health. The stun can get you out of tricky situations where you are being focused, or it can stun enemies while you are using Lurking In The Waters to ensure full damage.

Item 6

Void Stone gives more health, magical protection, and magical power while also lowering nearby enemies' magical defense. This item will help with chipping away at Guardians and Warriors who have build magical defense. It can not only increase the damage you do, but it can also increase the damage your teammates do in team fights by making enemies more susceptible to magical damage.

Relics

Horrific Emblem is used to slow enemies to confirm kills and to peel for teammates. I find it very useful early game to punish my opponents when they overextend. Usually my first relic.

Heavenly Shoes
Heavenly Shoes is super useful for getting teammates out of sticky situations. This relic can also be used to chase down retreating enemies and to negate CC. Usually my second relic.

ALTERNATIVE Magic Shell provides you and your teammates with a small shield that helps mitigate damage. Great for mitigating damage from enemy ultimates. Upgraded, this relic absorbs two Basic Attacks, which can be incredibly useful vs Basic Attack based gods. However, this item can be difficult to use effectively.

ALTERNATIVE Meditation Cloak is great for more sustain. It restores health and mana for teammates, and when upgraded it reduces mana cost and 1 second of cooldown. A good alternative if you find yourself returning to fountain too much, low on health, or OoM often.

ALTERNATIVE Shield of Thorns can be used to reflect damage back at your attacker, thus detouring them from attacking and allowing you to either escape or move in closer. Upgraded, this relic limits the amount of health enemies can regenerate from Lifesteal when attacking you. And since Lifesteal is huge in the meta right now, this is a viable relic.

Gameplay

Early Game

Once you buy your items and get your first ability (imo it should be Sickening Strike), head to Support/Carry Lane (i.e., the longer of the two outside lanes. Remember, More Players = More Lane). Try to not use any abilities until the first minion wave arrives. Advanced Sobek players may try to fight and Basic Attack enemy gods in tandem with the carry. DO NOT IMMEDIATELY USE Sickening Strike on the minion wave. First, use Basic Attacks on the minions, which will proc your passive, and after taking some damage use Sickening Strike (try to not kill the minions yourself bc of Guardian's Blessing).

if you out cleared your opponents by 3 or more minions, go take their purple camp

if your opponents out cleared you by 3 or more minions, either contest your purple if they invade, or give up purple, start on the second wave, and quickly press on to their purple before returning to lane for the third wave.

This format of wave clear and getting purple camp is the basic early game rotation for Support and Carry. In order to out level your opponents, you need to incorporate four things into this route; (1) both your and their red camp, (2) Oracles (i.e., harpies at Gold Fury), (3) Gold Fury (approx 8 min at the earliest), and (4) backing, or returning to the fountain for items, health, and mana. By successfully managing and incorporating these four objectives into your route, you should be able to out level your opponents and ultimately win your lane. Or at least for the Early Game....

**One thing to always look for as Sobek is the opportunity to pluck (i.e., Charge Prey an enemy god into your tower. Tower shots destroy early game. And Tail Whip can be used to keep them in tower for one more shot.

Mid Game

While Gold Fury isn't the most important thing early game, it becomes more plausible to take Gold Fury in the Mid Game. As Support, you will tank the majority, if not all, of the damage from the Gold Fury. You will almost always need your Carry, and maybe even your Mid, to take Gold Fury. As the game progresses, the enemy Jungle will begin to rotate into your Support/Carry lane. Purchase Wards as soon as possible (ideally around the 6-8 min mark) to help detect incoming ganks. See the warding section of this guide for ward placement. You, too, can look to rotate more during Mid Game to help out Mid and Solo lane. Do not be afraid to take a camp during your rotations if a teammate is nearby. Taking Pyromancer and Fire Giant become a reality in the Mid Game, so be sure to incorporate those objectives into your rotations when possible. Again, you will tank most of the damage from Pyromancer and Fire Giant. However, always pay attention to (1) where the enemy Support is, and (2) how your Carry is doing.

(1) you should follow the enemy Support to each lane, but do not let them dictate your rotations entirely. They should have the same mentality of following you from lane to lane, so go on the offensive from time to time and force the enemy Support to rotate with YOU.

(2) if your Carry is struggling or being ganked, make sure to not go too far so you can go back to help. And be sure to ward before leaving so as to not leave your Carry to be blindsided.

Late Game

With the arrival of the Late Game goes more and more team fights. These will be 5v5 standoffs that eventually explode into chaos. During this chaos, Sobek thrives. Your first objective in a team fight is to use Charge Prey to pluck an enemy (should be a squishy, ideally one without an easy escape) and throw them to your teammates who should melt that enemy making it a 5v4 in your favor. If you miss your Charge Prey use Tail Whip to push away the inevitable enemies that swarm you, Sickening Strike to get a marginal heal before submerging into Lurking In The Waters for either an escape if your health is too low or for an attack is your team has jumped in to help you. Providing you can stay in the fight, use Basic Attacks to proc Blessing of the Nile and wait for your cooldowns. Rinse & Repeat.

**Be sure to let your teammates know when you need out of a fight. If you are too low on health, have no mana, your abilities are on cooldown, or you aren't close enough to help, make sure you tell your team to retreat.

Chef Sobek

Sobek needs a Chef skin. A white Chef's hat, with a white Chef's top, and a giant spatula.

I don't know if I agree with Jade Emperor's Crown being the set item 4 if you are vs a magical carry and built Genji's Guard previously. I'd say it's an option, but if it's a 3 magical 2 physical comp, and those 2 phys aren't nearly as dangerous, Jade's perhaps less beneficial than perhaps a better counter item...

Speaking of counter items, you don't have any, other than Pestilence. What about Hide of the Nemean Lion or Midgardian Mail? Midgard, or maybe even Witchblade, are quite functional if facing that magical carry...the added health is nice, but what you'd be looking to do is try to slow their attack speed down...that will definitely hinder the DPS of a Freya. Anyway, as Support, one of your main jobs (besides tanking and peeling) is to get items that counter enemies...would really like to see some of those as options, if nothing else.

I do like Void Stone, but think it has a place earlier in the game, not just as item #6. If you're being the aggressor in lane, and especially if you've got a magical jungler or a magical ADC, early protection reductions are going to really help overall damage output. If you consider this potential aggression, then perhaps you might want to consider further alternatives, by even possibly dropping Gauntlet of Thebes for a more aggressive set of items...like an early Jade + Void, or figuring out a way to fit in Stone of Binding...not saying these are options you'd like, but at least something to consider.

In your gameplay section, the only early game explanation you have seems to be meeting the enemy duo in lane to start. What about if they go and clear their red/purple? Your instructions at that point are rendered void.

You talk about warding, but don't have that section...assuming you're planning on making one, but it's in process?

SmiteFire & Smite

Smite is an online battleground between mythical gods. Players choose from a selection of gods, join session-based arena combat and use custom powers and team tactics against other players and minions. Smite is inspired by Defense of the Ancients (DotA) but instead of being above the action, the third-person camera brings you right into the combat. And, instead of clicking a map, you use WASD to move, dodge, and fight your way through the detailed graphics of SMITE's battlegrounds.